Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 68

SIGRID CECILIE JUEL HANSEN
doctoral work Kuml and Haugfé from
1954, which broadly and in few
paragraphs mentions the material found in
Iceland. In addition, whetstones are
commonly described in the artifact
sections of preliminary excavation
reports, but rarely in any great length. The
exception is the recently published
monograph of the Hofstaðir excavations
(Lucas ed. 2009), which presents a
thorough analysis of the whetstones with
artifactual analysis by Colleen Batey and
petrological analysis by the geologist
Helge Askvik, who has conducted the
major studies of the whetstones from
Haithabu and Kaupang with Heid Resi
(1992 and 2008). In addition Kevin Smith
has carried out geochemical and
chronometric analyses to identify
potential source areas for whetstones
foimd in Iceland and his work is in process
for publication.
A problem faced in this study is the
lack of information about foreign
whetstone collections from sites
comparable to the Icelandic archaeological
sites. Research on whetstones is rather
limited in general and the material that has
been analyzed and published is primarily
írom towns, trading sites and other high
status settlements. The Icelandic sites, on
the other hand, are primarily rural,
consisting of farmhouses of varying status
with no or little evidence of large scale
trade or exchange. This makes
comparisons problematic. Although not
directly comparable, it is nevertheless
valuable to consider the whetstone
material outside Iceland. It throws light on
the principal pattems and trends, in
particular in connection to the stone types
used as whetstone material in the different
sites and the varying proportions of the
different geological source material found
abroad and in Iceland.
Four sites, all belonging to the
Westem Viking Age trade routes, were
chosen for comparative material: Hedeby
in northem Germany close to the Danish
border, Kaupang close to modem day
Oslo, Borg in Lofoten in northem
Norway, and York in northem England. In
addition, provenance studies of
whetstones from several Scandinavian,
Baltic and British sites also supplied very
useful background knowledge of
whetstone trade in general. The analysis
of whetstone collections ffom Viking Age
and medieval contexts were carried out
during the years 2006-2009, as part of my
MA thesis “Whetstones ífom Viking Age
Iceland - As part of the Trans-Atlantic
trade in basic commodities (2009)”. In
addition, Bragason (2008) has analyzed a
few post-medieval sites and considered
the use of local Icelandic whetstone
sources. The material was registered in a
simple excel database in order to
systematically analyze the whetstones
according to type, shape, size and use (see
fig.l). The Icelandic collection was
registered, largely using the same methods
as Heid G. Resi used in her analysis of the
whetstone material ffom Haithabu (Resi
1990) and Kaupang (Resi 2008).
Geological source material
Within the Icelandic collections as a
whole it has been possible to distinguish
three main source materials: Eidsborg
schist, a dark grey schist, and an Icelandic
dolerite. A small group (1-5%) of
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